Stewardship of Physical Health: Part 2

Introduction and Review of Previous Headings

0:02 The following message was delivered on Sunday morning, August 11, 2002, in the Adult Sunday School class at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now, we do welcome the visitors among us, the vacationers who are returning from vacations, and you younger men and women who have joined us for these several classes. Let me just give a word of explanation for the visitors and the vacationers who have been away from us. This class is in a state of transition.

0:38 Pastor Jay has completed a series of 15 expositions in the Book of Ruth, and God willing, Pastor Carlson will be taking up with us a guided study through Don Carson's book on spiritual reformation, a study in the prayers of the Apostle Paul. If you have not obtained a copy. of that book, there are copies still available in the bookstore, and we urge you to obtain one and to seek to read at least the first chapter in preparation for the first lesson several weeks' time from now. And in this transition period growing out of the ongoing interaction of your elders with one another, as we seek to discern what matters ought to be addressed in this public forum, whether it be the public forum or a meeting with your elders. greetings again. in the class or in the public worship morning and evening, it was decided that this would be an expedient time for me to take up with you the subject of the Christian and the stewardship of his or her body. Now everything in me reacts against having to give the male and female pronouns, but apparently it's more and more becoming accepted and expected practice, so I will succumb

1:57 though everything in me still regards the masculine pronoun as generic, and I would like to say the Christian and the stewardship of his body, but I will succumb, I will bend to the consensus and say the Christian and the stewardship of his or her body. Last week I stated that the material was organized under four major headings, and we covered headings 1. 1 and 2 last Lord's Day. Now when I give this review, as I've often reminded you, I will not pause to cite, let alone expound, the many texts that were cited and at least briefly expounded last week. If you were not here, I urge you to get the tape. The tape is available. I don't know if it's CDs as well, and there will be printed notes of the major headings and the major texts made available.

2:57 It will be available to you either next Lord's Day or the following. So I'm going to give this brief review of headings 1 and 2 that we covered last Lord's Day, and the first heading was this, an emphatic disclaimer and a sober warning as we take up the subject of the Christian and the stewardship of his or her body, and the disclaimer was this. These lessons are not in any way an outgrowth of nor a capitulation to the growing cult of body worship, which in turn is a clear manifestation of our increasingly paganized society and culture. That's the disclaimer, and the warning was this. Don't take these things and go from. Indifference and carelessness to imbalance and fanaticism.

4:03 Remember the two illustrations that I gave you or analogies that have been helpful to me. If the devil can't keep us from climbing the hill of a truth, he'll push us down the other side from the pinnacle of that truth. If he can't freeze us out from considering the truth, he'll burn us up with a fanatical application of. And it would be most grievous to me and to your elders if, as an outgrowth of these lessons, some of you not only climbed the hill, but tumbled down the other side, and not only embraced the truth, but burned yourself up with it.

4:46 Well after giving this disclaimer and the warning, I stated that the next two major headings, headings number two and three, would be set forth under the analogy of a string, a string of pearls. And that we must never think of these issues in separate categories. I must teach them in separate categories, but the string is always found piercing the pearls and holding them together, and the pearls are never to be considered without that string that pierces every one and holds them together in a unit. So we then move from heading number one, a disclaimer.

5:27 The sober warning to the string. And that string was an effort on my part to set forth the larger biblical and theological context of any responsible consideration of the Christian's stewardship of his body. And that string, I suggested, has six strands to it. A lot of the household string you have will often have three strands.

5:56 Well. We have some household string with six strands. Every one of them vital to the composition of that string. And the pearls that we'll begin to consider in a few moments, specific texts of Scripture addressing matters concerning the stewardship of a Christian's body, those pearls are pierced and through them runs this six-strand string.

6:25 And we must never isolate ourselves from it. We must never isolate ourselves from it. We must never isolate ourselves from it. We must never isolate ourselves from it.

6:27 We must never isolate the truth of that pearl apart from the string that runs through them. And I will be emphasizing that for some of you ad nauseam. But that's all right. Peter realized he emphasized certain things ad nauseam and said, I'm telling you things you already know, you're already established in them, but I think it necessary as long as I'm in this tabernacle to stir you up by way of remembrance.

6:56 Now. Peter comes to the conclusion that those six strands that compose the string. Here they were. I'll just state them.

7:03 No text, no explanation. This is simply a statement of them. Number one. As a result of the fall of man physical abnormalities, liabilities, diseases, degenerative diseases, various illnesses and death itself are woven into the fabric of human existence and will remain.

7:27 until the redemption of our bodies at the return of Christ. All of the perfect health gurus notwithstanding, this is the teaching of the Bible, and this is validated by men's experience. Carlton Fredericks died in his seventies. He didn't even live into his eighties.

7:54 And many of the gurus, religious and non-religious, die like all men and experience degenerative diseases and various illnesses. Second, our concern for and care of our bodies must always be subservient to the greater concerns of our souls and of the kingdom of God. Third strand, a long and healthy life, is to be desired and responsibly sought when it is desired and sought for the sake of fruitfulness for God. Strand number four, poor health, chronic physical ailments, and premature death may be a result of an unexplained, mysterious exercise of the absolute sovereignty of God. Fifth, poor health, chronic physical ailments, and premature death may be the result of divine chastisement for sin or a divine restraint from sin. And sixth, poor health, chronic physical ailments, and premature death along with all of their consequences

9:20 may be the direct result of carelessness or indifference to the stewardship of the care of one's body. And it is that sixth strand that greatly burdens me personally and burdens your elders, both in the present and in the long-term vision and concern for the blessing of God upon your lives and upon the life of this church. Now, that's my review of major heading number one, this emphatic disclaimer and sober warning. Major heading number two, the string that pierces the pearls, that is, the larger biblical and theological context of any responsible handling of this subject of the Christian stewardship of his body. Now we come to take up the pierced pearls. That is the biblical case. For the Christian exercising a responsible stewardship in the care of his body.

Sermon Goal: Conscientious Concern and Disciplined Effort

10:33 In the time that remains, I've already mentioned this, we'll be examining four texts this morning. God willing, next Lord's Day in the adult class, three additional texts and then adding to that major heading number four next week, God willing, the areas in which that stewardship must be responsibly exercised and discharged. Now, as we take up these texts together, what is my goal? I want to tell you right at the outset.

11:08 When reduced to the irreducible minimum, the common denominator of my goal this morning comes down to two things. And may I mention by way of an aside, I'm teaching you this morning with the full knowledge and consent of, my physician, who replaced my lens on Thursday, all right? I asked him explicitly, should I teach the class on Sunday? He said, you go right ahead, just don't get in a fight.

11:35 That's what he said to me. So, I hope I don't get in a fight this morning, because I've already got a black eye and I don't want to get another one, all right? Good. Here we are.

11:46 Here's my goal. I'm telling you right at the outset, and I trust that if any of you have your defenses up, the statement of my goal will be used of God, to dismantle the fences. Here's my goal. My goal is to set before you a sound biblical case, seeking to persuade every Christian to acquire and to promote in others a conscientious and balanced concern regarding the stewardship of one's body.

12:24 Now, you would not know, but, I have spent hours on that statement. Every time I thought I had it right, yesterday on the treadmill, two parts of it, I said, no, Lord, that's not right. Ran upstairs, got my pen, quoted them. Thought I had it right.

12:40 Sitting at my desk at 10.30, quarter to 11 last night, I said, no, it's still not right. Driving over this morning, still said, Lord, I still don't have it fully right. But as right, right as it can be, this is my goal.

12:52 This embodies what my goal is. To set before you a sound biblical case, seeking to persuade every Christian to acquire and to promote in others a conscientious and balanced concern regarding the stewardship of one's body. Now, let me break down some of the important parts in that first aspect of my goal. The key words, I'm attempting to set before you a sound biblical case.

13:33 That means I'm not just going to proof text you. We're going to spend sufficient time with every text to get the flow of thought to make sure it is seen in its proper context. So that your judgment as a believer is carried that this is indeed a biblical case. Not Pastor Martin's case.

13:54 So that your judgment as a believer is carried that this is indeed a biblical case. Not Pastor Martin's case. Not Pastor Martin's case. Not Pastor Martin's case.

13:55 with a sprinkling of an irresponsible handling of the Bible. A biblical case intended to persuade you. That is, I'm not interested in emotional manipulation. I am certainly not interested in personal embarrassment.

14:17 And I've pleaded with God, and my last words to my wife were, Honey, pray that God will give me a sweet reasonableness. And driving over here, since my wife and I are reading through 2 Corinthians and our devotions together, the phrase in 2 Corinthians in the latter part, I beseech you by the meekness and the gentleness of Christ. And I said, Lord, give me something of the meekness and the gentleness of Christ as I set before my people what I hope is a sound biblical case with a view to persuading you to do what? To acquire.

14:55 That is, to make your own and to promote your desire to have others make something their own. And what is that something that I hope you will make your own and you will help to pass on to others that they may make it their own? It's a conscientious and balanced concern. A conscientious concern.

15:22 That is a concern that gets into the realm of conscience. Something that is conscientious is something that is rooted in one's sense of duty and obligation. You see, the relationship between conscience and conscientious. My goal is to present a biblical case that by persuasion will work its way into the theater of your conscience, that moral monitor that says right, wrong, virtuous, vicious, pleasing.

15:56 To God, not pleasing. To God, a conscientious and balanced. That is a concern that is in balance with other areas of conscientious concern that are part of our biblical duty. And all of this with reference to the stewardship of one's body.

16:19 Now that's my first goal. That's what I'm out to do. I'm like a salesman appears at your door and you say, what do you want? He said, I want...

16:26 I want to present my product and I want to present it in such a way that before I walk out the door you sign on the dotted line. No hidden agenda. That's number one of my agenda. Number two is this.

16:38 My goal is to set before you a sound biblical case seeking to persuade every Christian to implement and to promote in others an informed, disciplined effort to administer to administer to administer to administer a stewardship of one's body. You see the progression? Not only want to get into your conscience to create a concern, but also as a result of our study that you will implement and seek to promote in others an informed, disciplined effort with regard to the stewardship of the body. An informed effort. The scripture says that the soul be without knowledge is not good. And he who makes haste with his feet sins.

17:41 Proverbs 19 and verse 2. I am not interested in people getting into their conscience a biblically rooted concern and then running off half-cocked and doing all kinds of crazy things. No. I want your action to be informed.

17:58 Informed. Informed by the scriptures. Informed by sound, medically proven matters of diet and exercise and the care of the body. Matters that come to us not by special revelation, but by general revelation.

18:15 My concern is so to present a sound biblical case seeking to persuade every Christian to implement and to promote in others an informed and disciplined effort and disciplined effort. And why do I use the word discipline?

18:35 Because that which is disciplined is done out of commitment to a lifestyle. The last thing in the world I want to do is fadism in any of these areas. I want to see us coming to grips with such statements as 2 Timothy 1.7.

18:54 God has not given us a spirit of fearfulness but of love and of power and of self-discipline. The fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5.22 is self-control. Or 1 Corinthians 9.27 Paul says, I buffet my body and bring it into subjection. He says, I live a lifestyle in which my body is my slave. I am not slave to my body and to its appetites. Now that's what I'm out to do.

19:28 Under God, seeking to set before you this sound biblical case with a view to persuading every Christian not only to have a conscientious and balanced concern regarding the stewardship of one's body, but to implement and promote an informed disciplined effort in the administration of the stewardship of one's body. And if concern, inform, wonder by the Bible, does not lead to implementation, you know what my lessons have done? They've simply increased your sin. I don't want to do that.

20:09 Because my Bible says in James 4 and in verse 17, is it? James 4, 17. To him that knows to do good and does it not, to him it is sin. So if I persuade your judgment that it is good to have a church, to have a church, to have a church, to have a church, to have a church, to have a church, to have a church, to have a church, to have a church, to have a church, to have a church, to have a church, to have a church, to have a concern about the stewardship of your body.

20:34 And you do not move to implementation. I've only increased your sin. I've increased your knowledge of what is good and what you ought to do. But if you don't do it, I've only increased your sin.

20:50 On the other hand, in the language of our Lord, John 13, 17, if you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. I've only increased your sin. I've only robbed you of blessing if I increase your knowledge and am not an instrument under God to move you to action. And I don't want to rob you of the sphere of God's blessing.

21:15 So, that's what I'm out to accomplish. Has it been clear? I hope it is. I don't know how to make it more clear as of now.

21:25 I could change this word, that word. That's my goal. That's my two-fold goal. That's my two-fold goal laid out on the table.

21:35 And I hope that every Christian hearing me say these things has an amen corner in his heart saying, Pastor, if you truly love us and you're a faithful preacher of the Word, how could you have any lesser goal than this? I hope your conscience affirms that my two-fold goal is an expression of genuine love and fidelity to my God-given task. All right? Now then, we're going to look at our pierced pearls.

Pierced Pearl 1: An Apostolic Supplication (3 John 1-2)

22:11 And I'm going to keep calling them pierced pearls until that sticks with you. And every time you look at one of those pearls and you forget it's pierced and got a string through it, uh-oh, it's pierced pearl! Remember the string. Remember the string!

22:23 Remember the string. It's not pierced for cosmetic's sake, but it's pierced for utilitarian's sake. It's pierced that the string might go through it. All right?

22:33 Pierced pearl numbers one, two, three, and four, if I have time to cover them, have as their organizing principle the opening words an apostolic. We're going to look at an apostolic supplication, an apostolic exhortation, an apostolic declaration, and an apostolic assertion. All right? And again, I clue you, that verbal parallelism, that didn't come while I was brushing my teeth either.

23:02 All right? All right. All right. All right.

23:02 An apostolic supplication which warrants this concern and effort regarding the stewardship of one's body. We're going to look at an apostolic supplication which warrants this concern and effort regarding the stewardship of one's body. Turn, please, to the book of 3 John. It's been a long time since any preacher asked you to turn to 3 John, I'm sure, including me.

23:32 Including this preacher. One of the oft-neglected little epistles in the New Testament. 3 John.

23:42 And I read verses 1 and 2.

23:45 The elder, John identifies himself simply as an elder, unto Gaius. There are two, possibly three different Gaiuses in the New Testament. And this is probably the third, not a Gaius referred to in other passages. The elder unto Gaius, the beloved, whom I love in truth.

24:05 Beloved, I pray that in all things you may prosper, speaking to Gaius, and be in health even as your soul prospers. Now John is writing to a man named Gaius. This man was noted for his zeal and faithfulness in connection with his ministry of hospitality and financial support of itinerant missionaries. Look at verse 5.

24:37 Beloved, you do a faithful work in whatever you do toward them that are brethren and strangers with all who bore witness to your love before the church whom you will do well to set forward on their journey worthily of God because that for the sake of the name they went forth taking nothing of the Gentiles. We therefore ought to welcome such that we may be fellow workers for the truth. Here was a situation of these itinerant gospel missionaries and Gaius had earned a reputation that when any of them came by there at Ephesus, this was the guy who was out to greet them at the city limits, to welcome them into the home, to provide for them, and when it came time for them to pack their duds and go off to preach in a new area, it was Gaius that was slipping a $20 bill in their back pocket and who was seeking to help them on their way. In other words, this was a man who was evidently kingdom-oriented with respect to his possessions, his interests, his energies, and his general concerns. You see that from the passage. You're persuaded of that, okay?

25:52 Second thing John says about him, very clear in verse 3, I rejoice greatly when brethren came and bore witness unto your truth even as you walk in truth. Here was a man who had earned the reputation of being a man who was healthy spiritually. He was walking in the truth in such a way that his reputation was known throughout the church and when people came and had interaction with John, they bore witness, hey, this man Gaius is going on with God. He's not stuck in a rut.

26:27 He's going on with God in his personal Christian life. He is concerned for the kingdom of God in the universe, for the use of his energies and his stuff, his goods, his interests. He's a kingdom-oriented, obedient, growing, flourishing disciple. You see that from the text.

26:51 Okay? Therefore, John can say this in verse 2, his supplication for him, I pray that in all things you may prosper and be in health even as your soul is prospering. In other words, he doesn't say, I pray that you may prosper in all things, be in good health as your soul may prosper, subjunctive, but it's an indicative. He says your soul is prospering and the prospering soul that you have, Gaius, is to be the measure of your generic prosperity.

27:29 I pray that in all things you may prosper and then specifically that he may prosper in all things. In having good health. You see, he moves from the generic. This is his prayer, his supplication.

27:44 I pray that in all things you may prosper. In all things you may prosper. You see how general prosperity was crucial to this man's kingdom-oriented ministry. How's he going to receive and show hospitality to itinerant missionaries and send them on the way with some shekels in their pocket if he himself is out of work and he himself is sick and unwell?

28:07 So he says, I pray that in all things you may prosper because here's a kingdom-oriented, obedient, Christ-honoring disciple. And John says, may you prosper in all things, generically, but specifically, and be in health even as, kathos, like an equal sign in the Greek, kathos, even as your soul is prospering. So I say, here we have as our first, first pierced pearl, an apostolic supplication which warrants this concern and effort regarding the stewardship of one's body. And why do I say that?

28:51 Having sought in this brief exposition to carry your judgment about the significance of the text? Because that which is the focus of an apostolic supplication ought to be the believer's prayer and his responsible pursuit. Once Gaius read John's letter, I have an apostle praying for me that I'll prosper in all things. Would that be an incentive for him to be diligent in his employment that he might prosper to continue his ministry of generosity and hospitality?

29:31 The apostolic prayer would not lead him to say, oh, I've got an apostle praying a prosperous, prospering all things. So I bought and hit the golf ball around the golf course four hours a day. He got an apostle praying I'll prosper. If an apostle's praying I'll prosper, I don't need to use the means.

29:47 You think that's what he did? No, because then John could not say you're walking in the truth. Everyone would look at him and say, this guy's become a lazy bum hiding his laziness under the prayer of an apostle. Shame on him.

30:00 You follow me? You're with me. You're with me. I've got to carry your judgment.

30:04 Now in the same way, suppose he said, ah, I've got an apostle praying I'll be in good health. I can stuff my belly with whatever I like. I don't need to push myself to get cardiovascular exercise. If I'm going to live to be 90, I'll live to be 90 like Churchill.

30:23 No matter what I do. Become a de facto hyper-Calvinist. You think that's what Gaius did? No way, Jose.

30:34 When Gaius knows an apostle is praying that he'll prosper in all things and be in good health, this becomes the incentive to the wise, responsible use of every means to which may be added the general will of God that we prosper in our labors, in our relationships, and that we be in good health. I say this apostolic supplication warrants the believer's concern to have a responsible stewardship, both a concern and an effort to implement this responsible stewardship of the care of one's body. Now, moving on quickly, pierced pearl number two is an apostolic exhortation which warrants this concern and effort. Excuse me.

Pierced Pearl 2: An Apostolic Exhortation (Romans 12:1-2)

31:41 It's just a band of, early morning phlegm on the vocal cords. We're going to look at an apostolic exhortation which warrants this concern and effort. Please turn with me to Romans chapter 12.

31:55 Remember what I'm trying to do now. I'm trying to get inside your conscience with the Bible. That's all. No emotional manipulation.

32:04 No psychological battering. But I do hope the Word of God will batter down some of the rotten thinking and rotten practice that exists in some of you sitting here. I make no apology that I hope God's Word will be a battering ram to knock down some of those walls. Romans 12, 1 and 2.

32:26 I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable or spiritual service. Do not be fashioned according to this world or this age, but be fashioned according to this world or this age, but be fashioned but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Now, most of you know that in Romans 1 through 11, the Apostle Paul, by the inspiration of the Spirit, gives us what can justly be described as a breathtaking, panoramic display of the mercies of God shown to hell deserving sinners in the person and work of Jesus Christ and by the ministry and indwelling of the Holy Spirit. There's a summary of Romans 1 through 11, a breathtaking, panoramic display of the mercies of God shown to hell deserving sinners in the person and work of the Lord Jesus, and in the person, ministry, and indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Now, what is to be

33:54 our appropriate response to this display of God's mercies when the realities of it are embraced by faith and experienced in the soul of the believer? What is to be the response? What do we do before this breathtaking, panoramic display of the mercies of God? Paul tells us, I beseech you, therefore, in the light of this breathtaking, panoramic display of the mercies of God in this gospel that is the power of God to salvation, I beseech you, I entreat you, therefore, in the light of all of this, brethren, by the mercies of God to present your bodies. We might think it would say to give your whole heart, but it doesn't say that. It says present your bodies.

35:02 That here with toes, ankles, knees, thighs, waist, chest, head, arms, bodies. That's what you're sitting in a pew with. It's your body.

35:18 Put a pin in it, you feel it. Put it on, a hot stove, you feel it. It's your body. That's what the text says.

35:28 The Greek word for body always means body. In any context like this, I present, I beseech you to present your bodies. And what are the qualifying phrases? Well, when you break them all down, it comes out something like this.

35:44 We are to present our bodies to God as a holy, that is set apart for God, living sacrifice, in the confidence that such a presentation is acceptable to Him. I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, set apart unto God, in the confidence it is acceptable to Him. For this is your spiritual or rational service. God doesn't ask you to run out and find a lamb or a bullock and present this dead.

36:22 A carcass in a temple. He says, if you've understood anything of my mercies, present your bodies. It is pleasing to me when those overcome with the wonder of my mercies present everything from the top of their head to the sole of their foot. Present it to me.

36:41 It pleases me when in response to my mercies they present their bodies. And in that context and atmosphere of a presented body, Paul says, there are some activities to go on in the head and in the heart. And here they are. Do not be fashioned according to this age.

37:04 I'm not to allow who and what I am in my bodily experience and existence to be shaped and molded by the thought patterns and by the currents of this age, the society in which I live, this world system under the control of the devil. It is not to exert a molding influence upon who and what I am as a grateful responder to God's mercy centered in the body and its activity. Don't detach yourself from the context. And how is that to be done in practical experience?

37:41 He tells us. But be transformed by the renewing of your mind. You will be transformed so that you are part of the counterculture of the age. As your mind is constantly being renewed.

37:59 Renewed by the truth. Renewed by a God-centered Bible-based perspective on all of life in general and in particular what your body is for and how your body is to be useful in the service of God. And as you are being transformed in your mind, then you will in the totality of your redeemed being prove, work out in actual experience the will of God. That which is the good, the perfect, and the acceptable.

38:36 Now, no little part of our bodies being instruments of doing the will of God in non-conformity to the age and transformed into biblical thinking and action is in the area of such things as the will of God. How can I have the most energy and strength and efficiency to serve the God in my body to whom I presented my body?

39:08 Isn't that an inescapable deduction? Therefore, I'm in the matters of diet and exercise and cardiovascular fitness directly related to energy and strength levels. I am to be concerned that I do not unnecessarily put toxins into this body that would unnecessarily make it liable to illness and sickness and weakness. I am to be concerned about not putting in too many calories into the body that I load it down with an excessive burden of weight that serves no good purpose except to strain the heart and strain the cardiovascular system. I am to be concerned not because I've sold out to body worship but because I love God's mercy in Christ and I've given my body to Him. That's why it is soaked in gospel tap roots. Gospel soil.

40:17 It's tap roots sink down into gospel soil. Now, no little part of this is recognizing the spirit of the age must not press in upon us. And the age as it manifested itself manifested itself in Roman society was hedonistic to the core.

40:41 Pleasure.

40:43 Food. Wine. Leisure. Sensual indulgence.

40:49 That was the age in which these Roman Christians had to be determined I will not be conformed by this age.

40:59 What's our age?

41:03 Obesity is of epidemic proportion. Not only among adults but now down into children.

41:13 That's a fact. And we're not talking about obesity determined by artificial weight charts.

41:23 Self-indulgence. Couch potato. Laziness. Lack of discipline.

41:31 That's the age. God says don't be conformed to it. In the context of a body presented to God in response to His mercies and commissioning it to doing the will of God. I say this apostolic exhortation warrants the concern and the effort with respect to the stewardship of the body that I said it was my goal to persuade you ought to be your concern and your effort.

Pierced Pearl 3: An Apostolic Declaration (1 Corinthians 6:12-20)

42:09 Now we come to the third pierced pearl from the apostolic supplication that warrants this concern and effort. The apostolic supplication the apostolic exhortation which warrants the concern and effort. Now pierced pearl number three. An apostolic declaration and its application which warrants this concern and effort respecting the stewardship of one's body.

42:41 An apostolic declaration and its application which warrants this concern and effort to have a responsible concern about the stewardship of one's body. Here our pierced pearl is found in 1 Corinthians chapter 6. 1 Corinthians chapter 6. The paragraph begins in verse 12.

43:06 I'll not go into the exposition of that part but starting in verse 14 now verse 13 reading very quickly to the end of the chapter and then we'll glean the sentence. I'm going to read it to you and then we'll get to the central issues. Meats for the belly and the belly for meats. But God shall bring to naught both it and them.

43:26 But the body is not for fornication but for the Lord. And the Lord for the body. And God both raised the Lord and will raise us up through his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?

43:43 Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? God forbid. Or do you not know that he that is joined to a harlot is one body? For the two said he shall become one flesh.

43:57 But he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man does is without the body but he that commits fornication sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you which you have from God and you are not your own for you were bought with a price.

44:18 Glorify God therefore in your body. And if you have the new King James using an old and unreliable textual variant and your spirit which are his there is no solid evidence that Paul wrote that. I'm sorry to disappoint you and I can't go into that matter it shouldn't in any way cripple your confidence in the word of God but what Paul wrote was you were bought with a price glorify God therefore in your body full stop. Now in this passage the main subject is obviously the matter of sexual impurity and this is Paul's antidote for sexual impurity.

44:59 I think that's the term I used when I expounded this a couple of years ago the divine antidote for sexual impurity. Now the main ingredient in the composition of this antidote is Paul's declaration concerning the dignity of the body in the light of creation and the redemption. The main ingredient as Paul composes his antidote what medicine can I give the Corinthians that will immunize them against this horrible epidemic of sexual immorality. It just oozed throughout the society and many of these Corinthians having been converted were still drifting back into it and Paul thinks what kind of medicine can I give them? What shall I put into the concoction and tell them drink this and this will help immunize you against sexual impurity. Well it's obvious that the main ingredient in Paul's antidote in Paul's preservative in Paul's inoculation against sexual impurity is setting forth the dignity of the body in the light of creation and redemption. Look at the four ways in which he does this.

46:16 Number one the body is made for the service of God 13b but the body is not for fornication but for the Lord. Your body was given for the service of the God who made it. Turn to Genesis 1 and 2 that is on the very surface of the passage when God forms the body of Adam out of the dust of the ground and forms Eve from the rip of Adam. It is that in that body they might serve the God who gave it to them.

46:50 Paul says your body was not given to fornicate. It was not given to experience illicit pleasure in the area of its capacity for sexual enjoyment. God gave you a body with a capacity for sexual enjoyment but he didn't give you the body for sexual enjoyment. He gave you the body for the service of God and only as your sexual pleasures and activities serve the purpose of God's will and God's glory are you to indulge them and to express them.

47:25 The body is made for the service of God. That's its dignity. Secondly, the body is marked out and destined for resurrection glory. Verse 14, God both raised the Lord and will raise us up through his power.

47:40 What dignity these bodies have. They're going to be raised by the power of God. These very bodies. When I get on my treadmill, I say, Lord, until the day of resurrection, this is the only body I've got in which to serve you.

47:56 Lord, help me that this exercise regimen will fit me to serve you. Get as many miles as I can until my work is done. But Lord, thank you, one day it's going to throb with resurrection power and life and vigor. I get excited on the treadmill that that old body that I'm pushing to huff and puff on the treadmill is going to be redolent with resurrection power and glory.

48:23 What dignity marked for resurrection. Third thing, I've left teaching and gone to preaching. This body is incorporated into our saving union with Christ. Look at this amazing statement in verse 15.

48:39 Do you not know that your bodies, not your souls, though our souls are, but your bodies are members of Christ?

48:53 When by the Spirit we're united to Christ, it's not just our souls and spirits. I can't explain it in some mechanical way, but standing before you with these ten fingers and this eye that's been pierced and got a new lens. This body is united to the Son of God at the right hand of the Father. What dignity the body has.

49:20 It's united to Jesus Christ. And then the fourth way he shows the dignity, and this is the climactic statement. He declares that the body of the child of God is nothing less than a blood-bought, Spirit-indwelt, God-owned temple of God Himself. Look at the language.

49:45 Verse 19 and 20. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, which you have from God, and you are not your own, for you were bought with a price? What dignity is placed upon the body? It is right now not pointing to the resurrection, but right now there at Corinth, in the midst of all the pressure to sexual impurity, he says, look, you Corinthians, this is what you need to know and keep before your consciousness.

50:22 That body with which you are tempted to fornicate and indulge in various kinds of sexual impurity, that body is marked with an unspeakable dignity. It is nothing less than a blood-bought, Spirit-indwelt, God-owned temple of God Himself. That's what your body is, Christian. Whether you think about it, whether you've pondered it, that's what your body is.

50:51 It is nothing less than a blood-bought, Spirit-indwelt, God-owned temple of God Himself. Oh, what dignity God has given to the body of the child of God. Now remember the string pierces even this pearl. With all six strands, the body has no less dignity when it's breaking down and it's got arthritic joints and the glasses get thicker and the lenses need to be sucked out and replaced and all the rest, it has all this dignity.

51:28 It's blood-bought, God-owned, Spirit-indwelt, a temple of the living God. Now, what simple concrete application does Paul make of all of this? All of this data, piling up one thing after another to say, oh, Corinthians, recognize the dignity of your body and you won't fornicate. And here it's 1030 and I'm supposed to quit, but I'm going to finish up this text.

51:57 I'm going to exercise papal rights here, Pastor Carlson, the only other elder here, and with or without your consent, I'm going to finish this up, all right?

52:09 I try to be an example of concluding the class on time and I generally am, but I've got to finish this up. It's too critical. What is the simple, concrete application Paul makes of all of this? Look at the text, verse 20.

52:22 You were bought with a price, the final statement about the dignity of the body. Now look. Glorify God therefore.

52:32 What is the therefore? Growing out of this amazing statement of the dignity of the body. It is this. You and I as Christians, it's a present imperative of the birth.

52:45 We must be committed to a conscious, continuous, relentless desire that God will be glorified in this body. To which he has assigned such amazing dignity.

Application: Glorifying God in Our Bodies

53:01 That is what the practical application is. That's why my third pierced pearl, I gave this heading, an apostolic declaration and its application which warrants the concern and effort of responsible administration of the stewardship of our bodies. Now let me ask you some questions. That I hope will forever get inside your conscience.

53:29 Could you sit here this morning and take a sharp knife and say, Oh Lord, this body to which you've assigned such dignity, I can glorify you, the God who has given this body, who has given such dignity to this body. I glorify you now while I take this knife and I make slashes across my arm. And I stab it into my thigh. Is there anyone here in his or her right mind with any sense of spiritual propriety that could do that?

54:05 Could you glorify God in your body by self-mutilation? I know what your answer is. Of course not. Think I'm stupid, pastor?

54:17 No, I don't think you're stupid. But I do think some of you have made some pill boxes in which to protect yourself from reality. And I want to blast open your pill boxes in the meekness, in the gentleness of Christ, and out of love for you. Remember, I'm coming into your pill box to blast you out of it, out of love.

54:39 Second question, could you take a handful of poison ivy leaves and while rubbing them on your arm and on your face, say, oh God, I glorify you by deliberately inflicting myself with a bad case of poison ivy? Anyone here could do that? I don't think so. There are no takers.

55:03 Could you take a glass of polluted, toxic water that you know has intolerably high levels of lead, cyanide, and a host of infectious bacteria and say, oh God, knowing what's in this glock, I drink it to your glory. Any takers? You say, pastor, you're really gone. You're out in right field now.

55:34 No, I don't think I'm out in right field. When we are persuaded that our body is everything this passage says, culminating in this statement, that it is a blood-bought, spirit-indwelt, God-owned temple of God himself, and when we take seriously another passage in Corinthians that talks about glorifying God and focuses not on sexual abuses, but on these issues, 1 Corinthians 10.31, whether therefore you eat or drink, do all to the glory of God. Can you or can I sit down to a meal and say, oh Lord, I'm glorifying you by eating stuff, the cleric content to which I'm utterly indifferent, the levels of animal fat, the levels of animal fat, the levels of animal fat, saturated fat, concerning which I'm totally indifferent. I glorify you by clogging up my arteries, by putting on excessive weight. Lord, to your glory, bless this irresponsible ingestion of this pile of food. Is there anyone here who can do that?

56:58 If you can't, then don't do it. Whether you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. Glorify God, therefore, in your body. Can you glorify God by saying, Lord, here it is, Thursday, and I've done nothing but move from my bed to the shower, to the car, and back again.

57:22 That's my cycle of life. I've not taken a walk. I've done nothing consciously to increase my heart rate. I know all of the facts are clear about the necessity of some form of cardiovascular ed, but Lord, to your glory, I'm going to sit here and read a book and not get my heart rate up.

57:39 I'm going to get myself off my duff and out to take a brisk walk or down on a treadmill or some reasonable effort. Can you do that to the glory of God? And let me go further. Can you then say, oh God, I know that this may chop off ten years of my life, and for your glory, I want to have grandchildren that just can go and put a flower on my grave rather than play with me in the backyard.

58:03 For your glory, Lord, I want my husband or wife to have to be traipsing me around from one doctor's office to another because I've brought upon myself illnesses as a direct result of my irresponsibility about diet and exercise and medical knowledge and involvement. Lord, I glorify You. Dear people, you can't do that. I know you too well.

58:30 You love God too much to insult Him that way. But are you not insulting Him? Not with words, but by deeds. I said, my goal, goal was persuade you to have a concern, but beyond that, that the concern might move to a commitment to effort. And then I added the word, and with this I close. In both of those parts of my goal, I said to produce a concern and a desire for you to propagate that concern. Parents, you've got to be concerned that your children think biblically about these matters and practice biblical patterns. Husbands, you've got to be concerned for your wife. Wives, you've got to be concerned for your husbands. Children, if you've got parents who are indifferent, without being disrespectful, you've

59:25 got to be concerned to try to reason with them and say, Dad, I don't want to see you die before I have any grandchildren. But it's obvious, you go on the way you are, Dad, you're a setup for a heart attack.

59:37 We've got to be concerned for your children. one another, to encourage, to admonish, to strengthen one another's resolve that by the grace of God we as a people will be known, not as those who sold out to the cult of body worship, but a people committed to glorifying God in our bodies. Well, I've taken more time. God willing, we'll take up the fourth apostolic thing and then, the Lord willing, the three others as our time next week. And I've got two weeks allotted to me, so I'm not pressured. I'd hope to get through the four, but you never know what happens from the notes to the preaching. Let's pray. Oh, before we dismiss, pass, no, no, that's next week, because that's number four.

Conclusion and Recommended Reading

60:28 Excuse me. Number four, I've got a recommendation of a tape. What I want you to do this morning, as you leave, the deacons will be standing there. There is clipped together some articles that I would urge you to read between now and next week, every one of them written by responsible medical personnel. None of this is kookish stuff.

60:51 None of this is far-out alternative medical stuff. It is all articles rooted in sound statistical analysis, summaries of stuff that's appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, and I would urge you please to read that material to sensitize yourself, so that when I apply and seek to show the areas where this concern must be manifested, this material will have already filtered into your judgment. All right? Let's pray.

61:21 Our Father, we thank you for your word, that it is a lamp to our feet and a light to our pathway, and we pray that the things we've considered this morning will be written upon our hearts by the power of the Spirit, and that we may be given grace, work in us, Lord, both to will and to do of your good pleasure, for Jesus' sake. Amen.